BIG SPRING, Texas — The GEO Group may be coming back to Big Spring, but not to manage the state prisons. During this week’s city council meeting, the board approved a memorandum of understanding with GEO to operate the former Flightline prison as a center for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement service.
“If GEO can get a contract with ICE, then we'll be able to get these facilities back up and going," said District 6 City Councilman Maury Smith. "It won't be as many employees as it was last time but about half of what we did have here so we'll have more jobs in this area for Big Spring."
After President Biden’s executive order to halt the use of private prisons, hundreds of people lost their jobs, and that's something the council is looking to fix.
“That's basically what we're trying to do, just to have more job opportunities in Big Spring to better our environment here,” said Smith.
Big Spring is looking to secure that contract with ICE because the city is still operating a detention center by GEO for nearly $750,000.
“The existing contracts that we have right now, we're trying to resolve that and come up with a new contract in the future,” said Smith.
The memorandum is not a complete contract for the services, but the city feels it's an easier document for them to handle.
“We’re just trying to use the facilities properly and maintain them and keep moving forward with what we have out there right now," said Smith. "There's a lot of citizens that wish they were all gone but we just can't do that right now with GEO still having the contract with us. In the next 50 years, maybe we'll change that, but in the meantime, we're trying to work with them and they're excited in working with us on it."